


Guessing Targets

by Recourse



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 00:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14092947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Recourse/pseuds/Recourse
Summary: The night before the Proving, Vala sneaks Aloy out of the lodge for a breather and a conversation.





	Guessing Targets

“So. Your first day in Mother’s Heart. What d’you think?”

Aloy looks over to Vala and wonders if she’s being serious. Surely she’s seen everything that just happened? A ceremony calling out to a mother she’s never known, a guard spitting epithets in her face, a snot-nosed brat harassing her in the barracks?

“What do _you_ think?” she retorts, raising an eyebrow. “Everyone’s loud, and mean, and all anyone’s doing is...pointless distractions and comforts.”

“If you hate it so much here, why are you trying to get in with us?” Vala asks, raising her eyebrows.

“Yeah, outcast, if you don’t even have the decency to be jealous—” Bast starts up from across the room, but Vala reaches down and throws a boot at his head. Aloy giggles, Vala giving her a smirk.

“Okay, yeah, not a lot of privacy in here,” Vala admits. She slides off her bed. “C’mon.”

“Huh?” Aloy swears she can barely keep up with these people’s thought processes at times.

“Not a lot of privacy, so let’s go find some?” Vala’s smile is very inviting.

“There’s a guard,” Aloy points out. “And also, he hates me.”

Vala scoffs. “It’s not like we’re not allowed to leave. It’s just kind of dumb to waste sleep before the Proving, and I can be a little dumb tonight.”

“What for?” Aloy asks, eyeing Vala suspiciously.

“If you’re gonna be part of the tribe, you should at least enjoy a couple of things about it. Now are you coming or what?”

Something about the confident cock of her hip, the fearlessness in her voice, stirs Aloy to get up. It’s exciting, anticipatory — the only thing she can think to compare it to is getting ready to dig into freshly-cooked meat, a thought that she doesn’t quite like. Vala smirks at her and heads to the door, opening it and marching out with little care for the sputterings of the guard, letting Aloy follow in her wake.

The celebration’s settled by now, no more drunks hanging off roofs or roaring fires to be seen. Prayer lanterns still hang in the air, trapped by high wind currents swirling around Mother’s Heart, and it’s by their light that they make their way up. At first, Aloy thinks they’re heading for the Matriarch’s lodge, but then Vala casts her a glance and points to a couple of handholds embedded in the cliffs behind a house. Aloy wouldn’t have thought to spot the quasi-brave-trail without her there, but she follows her up by the thin light coming from the embers below and the lanterns above.

It’s a long way up; by the time they reach a shelf high in the rock, Aloy’s sweating and panting, Vala in a similar state. They stop there, looking down over the Heart, moonlight showing what the dying embers can’t quite illuminate.

“So…” Aloy begins, rubbing her sore hands together.

“This is where I go when it all gets a bit much for me.” Vala looks over at her. “The exercise gets my mind focused, and then the silence up here keeps it that way.”

“What do you have to get away from?” Aloy asks. “You seem pretty sure of your place here.”

“My mom’s War-Chief.”

Aloy scoffs. “And that means something to me? No mom, remember? Whole reason everyone hates me?”

Vala looks away, focusing her gaze on something far below. “R-right, yeah. I guess...you might not know what it’s like. Having all that expectation placed on you.”

“The only expectations I get are the ones I put on myself,” Aloy mutters. “I’m the only one who wants me to be anything. Everyone else would rather I just...disappear.”

“Hey, I don’t,” Vala chides gently. “Like I said, I knew you were my real competition from the start. Everyone’s seen you out in the Wilds at least a couple of times. You’re hard to miss once you get above the grass. All that red.”

“You want competition?” Aloy asks. “Don’t you want to be sure you’ll win?”

Vala shrugs. “It’s important to my mom, and I know I can do it. But...if I have legitimate competition, losing to them won’t sting too bad, if that makes any sense.” She looks back to Aloy, her eyes suddenly hard. “Which brings me back to my question. What are you doing here if you don’t really want to be Nora?”

“The Nora...haven’t really done much good for me. Not since I was born. That’s what I’m after, answers about where I come from,” Aloy explains. “If I win, and the Matriarchs grant me a boon…”

“They never told you,” Vala says, eyes widening in realization. “I—I guess, of course they wouldn’t, but...that man who raised you, he doesn’t know either?”

Aloy nods. “I have to go through with this, but Rost…” She thinks back to her conversation earlier that day, and a lump rises in her throat. “If I do, Rost is going to follow tribal law. He’ll never speak to me again. I only had one person who cared about me at all, and now he’s just going to disappear. Trading one ghost for another, I guess.”

“Oh…” Vala takes in a sharp breath. “Aloy, I had no idea…”

“How could you? You weren’t allowed to speak to me,” Aloy snaps. “You all have so much, all your—your families, and your roles, and your lives. You can afford to distract yourselves because you _know_ who you are. People will provide for you if something happens, so you can slack. I don’t get that. I never have.” 

“And that’s why I know you’re strong,” Vala says, putting a hand on Aloy’s shoulder. She jumps, not expecting the contact, and Vala pulls back like she’s been stung. There’s a brief, awkward moment of silence between them. Vala clears her throat, turning her gaze back to the city below. “...There’s something to be said for comforts, Aloy. Family, community...it’s distraction, but we don’t always need to be working to survive.”

“Maybe _you_ don’t.”

“You won’t have to, either. You’ll be a part of us. Maybe not everyone will be happy to have you, but some of us will. I will. Not everyone loves my family either, but…”

Aloy sighs. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs. “Been a...a hard day.”

“I bet.” Vala dares to look at her again. “Been a hard life for you, I think. But it doesn’t always have to be that way.”

“I don’t know anything else,” Aloy admits.

“Well, you might some day.” Vala stands up on the rocks, stretching out. “Now it’s getting seriously late and we have a climb down to do before we even get to sleep. You ready?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Aloy rises and turns to face Vala. “...thank you. For talking.”

“Anytime.” Vala smiles at her, taking a step closer. “I’m still not holding back tomorrow, though. You earn your victories here.”

Aloy chuckles, heat rising in her cheeks as Vala approaches. “I never thought you’d make it easy.”

“Just not my style.” Vala’s voice has grown soft. She reaches out a hand, and before Aloy knows what’s happening, she’s pressing their lips together. Just a moment, a flash-signal down Aloy’s nervous system, and then Vala’s stepping back and grinning.

“See? Something to be said for comforts,” Vala says, smirking. And like it’s nothing at all, she drops herself over the side of the shelf and starts climbing down.

Aloy races after her, heart pounding, knowing there’s definitely something to look forward to on the other side of all this.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  _  
> [Take aim and show me what you know](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sailp3-UJ9o)  
>  _  
> 


End file.
